Category: Big Ten

College Football Schedule: Championship Week

The Championship Week college football predictions, TV schedules, game previews and game times, broken down by conference.

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The Championship Week college football predictions, TV schedules, game previews and game times, broken down by conference.

All Listed Gametimes EST

Results So Far: SU 0-0, ATS 0-0, o/u: 0-0

Click on each game for game preview & prediction

ACC

Saturday, December 12 or 19

Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, NC
– Bet on these games with BetMGM

American Athletic Conference

Saturday, December 12

Army vs. Navy (in Philadelphia)
– Bet on these games with BetMGM

Big 12

Saturday, December 12 or 19

AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX
– Bet on these games with BetMGM

Conference USA

Saturday, December 12 or 19

Possible Conference Championship (could be December 5) at leading team’s home site
– Bet on these games with BetMGM

Independents

Saturday, December 12

Army vs. Navy (in Philadelphia)
– Bet on these games with BetMGM

SEC

Saturday, December 12 or 19

Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, GA
– Bet on these games with BetMGM

Sun Belt

Saturday, December 12 of 19

Possible Sun Belt Championship (could be December 5) at leading team’s home site
– Bet on these games with BetMGM

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Vanderbilt Football Schedule 2020

Vanderbilt Commodores football schedule 2020 prediction

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Vanderbilt Football Schedule 2020

Sept. 26 at Texas A&M

Oct. 3 LSU

Oct. 10 South Carolina

Oct. 17 at Missouri

Oct. 24 OPEN DATE

Oct. 31 Ole Miss

Nov. 7 at Mississippi State

Nov. 14 at Kentucky

Nov. 21 Florida

Nov. 28 Tennessee

Dec. 5 at Georgia

Missed: Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn

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No Big Ten or Pac-12, Irish should move up in Top 25 rankings

With two power-conferences opting out of the 2020 fall football season, Notre Dame should see their pre-season ranking improve.

With the announcement that the Big Ten and Pac-12 will not play fall football, there will be changes to many preseason rankings. When the Amway Coaches poll powered by USA Today Sports dropped eleven days ago the Irish were ranked 10th but was prior to two conferences bowing out.

Now there are just three major conferences playing football in the fall, the SEC, Big XII and ACC, there will be movement within the rankings. 247Sports repolled their experts and came up with new rankings and the Irish are just outside the top 5, ranked 6th overall.

Chris Hummer, who put together the piece, sees one huge hurdle for Notre Dame this season, their potential two games against the Clemson Tigers. He said “you could strongly argue the schedule got easier for the Irish. But … they’ll have to play Clemson twice in order to reach the CFB Playoff.” The Tigers are a huge challenge for any team and having to match-up against them twice in one season is a daunting task. They are ranked as 247Sports top team in their updated preseason rankings.

Let’s look at the positives Hummer takes note of, the arrival of “some exciting impact freshman (Chris Tyree, Jordan Johnson) who can help right away. The offensive line will be strength as always, especially with Tommy Kraemer and Robert Hainsey returning from injury.” Hummer did forget about 5-Star Michael Mayer, who along with Tyree and Johnson should make a formidable trio of true-freshman stars.

On defense there is hope as Hummer says “you have to trust defensive coordinator Clark Lea, though. He’s put together back-to-back top 15 defenses. Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah and Kyle Hamilton give Lea two start (I think he meant star) defenders to shape the unit around.”

Looking at the rest of the opponents on the slate, the Irish will face the 12th ranked North Carolina Tar Heels, the 17th ranked Louisville Cardinals, and the 24th ranked Pittsburgh Panthers. The expectations for Brian Kelly’s Fighting Irish are high in this very odd season. Expect a very fun one-off year of ACC action.

Ohio State star quarterback Justin Fields starts ‘We want to play’ petition

Ohio State star quarterback Justin Fields is using his platform to try and apply pressure to get Big Ten football back for this fall.

Aside from Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who has already been very vocal about his wishes to have college football played this fall, there probably isn’t as recognized name in the game as Justin Fields.

For those who may not know though, Fields quarterbacks Ohio State and after a standout 2019, was a big reason for the Buckeyes being among the favorites to win it all in 2020.

‘Was’ might be a short word but carries massive importance in this case as Ohio State and the rest of the Big Ten saw their football seasons canceled last week in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Now Fields is using his platform to try and pressure Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren and all 14 Big Ten presidents to reinstate football to the conferences 2020 fall schedule. Fields began a petition seeking nationwide support to this cause on Sunday and has already received more than 65,000 as of early Sunday afternoon.

Fields says of the ‘We want to play’ cause:

We want to play. We believe that safety protocols have been established and can be maintained to mitigate concerns of exposure to Covid 19. We believe that we should have the right to make decisions about what is best for our health and our future. Don’t let our hard work and sacrifice be in vain. #LetUsPlay!

I credit the young man for putting his support behind his belief. It’s not just about staying healthy this fall in order to be a first round pick in next spring’s NFL Draft. He clearly wants to play, potentially raise his draft stock and help lead a team with legit national championship aspirations.

Hats off to Fields for stating and acting on his wishes. Unfortunately for his cause I’d be shocked if this petition changes any minds of those in charge, even if it ultimately lands one million signatures that would fill all 14 Big Ten football stadiums.

If you’d like to sign the petition you can do so by clicking here.

ACC Football to continue as scheduled

The ACC Presidents met this afternoon and it was very quiet after their meeting.

As the old adage goes, no news is good news.

That was exactly the case this afternoon as the ACC Presidents met once again to discuss the health ramifications of playing a football season in the fall with their team of expert doctors.

The key to this meeting was that the Presidents will continue use their doctors as resources in determining if a season is viable. That is the main difference between the Big Ten and Pac-12’s decision and the ACC, SEC and Big XII’s move towards playing college football this fall. The conferences that are allowing football currently have their medical advisors believing that it is safe to go ahead and play football, while the two that have shut things down don’t agree.

It is a very touchy subject, as many players inside the Big Ten and Pac-12 would have liked to go forward with the season. Larry Scott, the Pac-12 commissioner, didn’t seem to have much push back on their decision as much as Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren did. A lot of it has to do with the state of California, where 4 Pac-12 schools reside, and the fact that they have had issues controlling the outbreak of COVID-19 cases.

The ACC will continue to move towards a season and hopefully, with no more hiccups along the way.

College Football Key Questions: Can A Spring Football Season Happen?

In this unprecedented time for college sports, we’ll work on some of the key questions. Can a spring football season really work?

In this unprecedented time for college sports, we’ll work on some of the key questions. Can a spring football season really happen?

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

Can a spring football season in 2021 happen?

My first reaction was, “absolutely not.”

The logistics are a nightmare, there’s no real point, and the idea of playing in the spring seemed like nothing more than blather by the Big Ten and other leagues to cushion the blow of – let’s call it what it is – cancelling the 2020 fall football season.

But semantics do matter here. Instead of using the word cancel, postpone is more to the point, considering the idea will be for the spring of 2021 to serve as the 2020 fall campaign.

If there’s money to be recouped from a spring session, college football will find a way to play.

Can it really happen?

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Jeff Brohm seems to think so

The Purdue head coach – along with all but killing the exact column I was doing – came up with a very detailed, very interesting idea on how to structurally play in the spring. He’s not alone, with Iowa head coach Kirk Ferentz, among others, claiming that it’s possible.

At the very least, it’s a jumping off point for a sport that wasn’t exactly proactive in its planning for what could happen if the virus didn’t go away in time to have a fall season.

The coaches are going to want this. A football coach without a football season is about as useful as a remote control without batteries. If there’s a shot to play football, coaches will sell it.

Oh yeah, that virus thing

If this all starts up in late January or early February, that means teams will need to be ready to start practicing for real in mid-December – that’s four months away from right now.

There’s not going to be a working vaccine available, but the real hope is for better, faster, and more reliable testing – which was the hope back in mid-March, too.

It’s essentially what the Pac-12 said in its guide as part of the rationale for halting fall sports, specifically football.

“Testing capacity needs to increase to allow for more frequent testing, performed closer to game time, and with more rapid turn-around time to prevent spread of infection and enhance the safety of all student-athletes, coaches, and staff involved, particularly in situations where physical distancing and mask wearing cannot be maintained. This will require access to significant capacity of point-of-care testing and rapid turn-around time, which is currently very limited.”

This is it. This is everything.

For all the planning, all the bickering, and all the different opinions across the various social media platforms, a spring football season in 2021 – and, not to get into this yet, but a 2021 fall campaign, too – isn’t going to happen at anything close to normal, if at all, without a way to be almost certain that everyone on the field is fine.

So let’s say that around December 10ish we have a solid set of national protocols that all the colleges and conferences are cool with.

NEXT: Eligibility, NFL Draft, recruiting

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4

Watch: Brian Kelly and Daelin Hayes discuss Big Ten on the Today Show

Notre Dame Head Coach Brian Kelly and lineman Daelin Hayes joined the Today Show to discuss the future of the 2020 fall football season.

Notre Dame’s Head Coach Brian Kelly and defensive linemen Daelin Hayes joined the Today Show this morning and touched upon many topics including the Big Ten’s decision, the enhanced testing the Irish have done, long-term health risks and more.

 

College Football 2020 Season: No Big Ten, Pac-12, What’s Really Going On?

The Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their fall seasons. So now what for them, and for the rest of college football?

The Big Ten and Pac-12 postponed their fall seasons. So now what for them, and for the rest of college football?

– Contact/Follow @ColFootballNews & @PeteFiutak

They’ve been among the wildest, craziest, and saddest few days in the history of college football – at least off the field.

Start with this – the entire sport didn’t shut down like many thought it might when the doom-and-gloom predictions started on Sunday night.

What’s really going on, and what’s going to happen going forward?

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5. The Big Ten and Pac-12 hit the pause button

It wasn’t a total stunner that the two big conferences decided not to play their respective 2020 fall college football seasons, but it wasn’t quite supposed to happen like it did on Tuesday.

The Pac-12 was always on the verge of shutting things down.

From the outbreak of the virus in Arizona, to the concerns with a new wave in Los Angeles, to several schools throughout California choosing to operate remotely, it was always just a question of time before it was all going to be over.

The player demands and movement weren’t why the conference chose not to play in the fall of 2020, and that wasn’t likely a big factor, but the demands for change hit a major roadblock after this.

The league simply decided it couldn’t do it. From travel, to logistics, to the lack of adequate testing, the recommendation was that the Pac-12 not play a full contact sport like football this fall, and that was it.

It wasn’t so easy for the Big Ten, especially considering it announced the shutdown just before the news broke that Kamala Harris was going to be Joe Biden’s VP choice. The Pac-12 announced its news after.

News leaked out on Monday that the B1G was going to shut down, the pushback made it seem like there was still hope, and then, by early afternoon on Tuesday, it was all done.

The thought was that the league was going to take a step back and wait a few weeks by moving its schedule start from the first week of September to the last week like the other Power 5 conferences, but nope. The presidents decided to stop the fall season.

Both conferences join the MAC and Mountain West in the idea of playing in the spring – more time to figure out a consistent plan (in other words, better testing) – but the dust has to settle first.

Too many questions have to be answered, from eligibility, to the transfer potential, to whether or not Nebraska – who wants to break ranks and play – might come up with a schedule of its own.

And now …

NEXT: Can the Big Ten and Pac-12 really play in the spring?

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5

What If Nebraska Plays In 2020? The Schedule Might Be …

Can Nebraska really play in 2020? It’s still up in the air, but if it does, what could its schedule be?

Can Nebraska really play in 2020? It’s still up in the air, but if it does, what could its schedule be?

Can Nebraska really do this?

When the Big Ten presidents chose to cancel/postpone the 2020 fall college football season, Nebraska – along with Iowa – voted for it to be a go, and let’s just say it didn’t take it all that well.

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So can Nebraska really play games outside of the Big Ten? Short answer, not really, but maybe.

There’s no way it can join another conference, and the only possible way this happens is with the Big Ten’s blessing – and if everyone gets their cut of the pie – but it could work.

Okay, so it couldn’t.

At the end of the day, the last thing the Big Ten needs is for Nebraska to go off and play, and then have to deal with Ohio State – who already said it wouldn’t play – Penn State, etc. screaming about wanting to come up with their own schedules.

But let’s get weird. Here’s how a Nebraska schedule could be, and it starts with three big assumptions.

1. Semantics matter. These have to be non-conference games; they can’t be Big 12 games.

2. The Big 12 will have to adjust. The conference will go to a 9+1 schedule, and some teams might have to fit in another game, or ditch the one it’s supposed to play. Which leads to …

3. All the games against the Big 12 have to be on the road. You think Oklahoma, Kansas State or Iowa State will want to travel to Lincoln in the midst of a conference season?

Also assume that all games start on September 26th, along with what the other Power Five leagues are trying to do.

Nebraska Football Schedule Idea

Sept. 5 OPEN

Sept. 12 OPEN

Sept. 19 OPEN

Sept. 26 at Oklahoma

The Sooners keep the Army game dumped and replace it with a whale of a nostalgic season opener against the Huskers.

Oct. 3 Liberty

Liberty might not be quite as flexible with its schedule as you might think. However, with the date against Bowling Green gone, this is open.

Oct. 10 Army

This was supposed to be the week the Huskers hosted Ohio State. Army is reconfiguring its slate – this is when it was supposed to play its now-cancelled game against Princeton.

Oct. 17 Air Force

The Falcons will likely get the go-ahead to play Army and Navy. There should be a way to add another game in place of the lost date with Hawaii.

Oct. 24 at Iowa State

This is Iowa State’s week off on the originally redone Big 12 slate.

Oct. 31 at Kansas

Like all of the Big 12 games on the possible Husker slate, it might have to be reworked. This is an open date for the Jayhawks on the original schedule.

Nov. 7 UCF

It makes no sense on a whole slew of levels, but if we’re going to get crazy, let’s have some fun. The Knights – at the moment – have an open game after the date with Florida A&M was canceled.

Nov. 14 BYU

BYU has the most flexibility of any of the likely options. Its date with San Diego State on the 14th is cancelled.

Nov. 21 New Mexico State

Big assumption: NMSU doesn’t cancel everything first. The Huskers would fine some Group of Five program happy to take this date if that happens.

Nov. 28 OPEN DATE

There has to be a built-in off week or two late in the season – this is it. Depending on the team and the matchup, a game could be moved here.

Dec. 5 at Kansas State

This might not be possible by the time you read this, but assume the Big 12 moves its championship to mid-to-late December and this date is open. Oklahoma isn’t going to play here – it’ll want to rest up for what it’ll assume is a trip to the title game – but a date in Manhattan to face the Wildcats would work.

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Watch: Half-Naked Man Interrupts Urban Meyer’s TV Appearance

There are a lot of questions to ask after Urban Meyer’s appearance on the Big Ten Network this Tuesday.

Let’s face it – if you’re reading this website chances are you’re a college football fan.  Maybe huge, maybe somewhat of one, but certainly at least a fairly decent college football fan.

Today’s news sucks, I have no other way of putting it.  It’s the Big Ten and Pac-12 today and could very easily be the rest of FBS college football in a matter of days.

It’s yet another kick to the mid-section of 2020, a year that simply can’t end soon enough.

We do have an important piece of video to share with you however that will hopefully at least make you smile a bit.

Urban Meyer was on the Big Ten Network’s breaking news coverage of the cancellation, sharing his insight as to what happens next.  In the middle of answering a question from Dave Revsine, something strange happened, see for yourself below:

I have more than a couple questions.

  • Where is Urban Meyer doing this hit from?  An RV?
  • Who is the half naked man behind him?
  • How does it take Meyer so long to realize the half-naked man is there?
  • How does Meyer not have any idea they’re not cutting away from him towards the end of the hit?

A lot to dissect here, no doubt.  I know we have a lot of questions about college football today and what happens now, but for a breather I’d like to know a lot more about what in the wide-world of sports is going on in this interview.